CHAPTER III.
The Development of the Soroban.
Before proceeding to a consideration of the third period of Japanese mathematics, approximately the seventeenth century of the Christian era, it becomes necessary to turn our attention to the history of the simple but remarkable calculating machine which is universal in all parts of the Island Empire, the soroban. This will be followed by a chapter upon another mechanical aid known as the sangi, since each of these devices had a marked influence upon higher as well as elementary mathematics from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.[1]
The numeral systems of the ancients were so unsuited to the purposes of actual calculation that probably some form of mechanical calculation was always necessary. The fact is the more evident when we consider that convenient writing material
- ↑ The literature of these forms of the abacus is extensive. The following are some of the more important sources: Vissière, A., Recherches sur l'origine de l'abaque chinois, in Bulletin de Giographie. Paris 1892; Knott, C. G., The Society of Japan, Yokohama 1886, vol. 14, p. 18; Goschkewitsch, J., Ueber das Chinesiche Rechenbrett, in the Arbeiten der Kaiserlich Russischen Gesandschaft zu Peking, Berlin 1858, vol. I, p. 293 (no history); van Name, R., On the Abacus of China and Japan, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 1875, vol. X, proc., p. CX; Rodet, L., Le souan-pan des Chinois, Bulletin de la Societé mathematique de France, 1880, vol. VIII; de la Couperie, A. T., The Old Numerals, the Counting Rods, and the Swan-pan, Numismatic Chronicle, London 1883, vol. III (3), p. 297; Hayashi, T., A brief history of Japanese Mathematics, part I, p. 18; Hübner, M., Die charakteristichen Formen des Rechenbretts, Zeitschrift für Lehrmittelwesen etc., Wien 1906, II. Jahrg., p. 47 (not historical). There is also an extensive literature relating to other forms of the abacus.
